Monday, May 16, 2016

May Art Bead Scene Challenge

Art Bead Scene May Challenge
"On A Shaker Theme" by Charles Sheeler

From Wikipedia: "The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing is a religious sect, also known as the Shakers, founded in the 18th century in England, having branched off from a Quaker community. They were known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Shakers settled in colonial America, with initial settlements in New Lebanon, New York, today they are mostly known for their celibate and communal lifestyle, pacifism, and their model of equality of the sexes, which they institutionalized in their society in the 1780s. They are also known for their simple living, architecture, and furniture."

"This painting, of a laundry and machine shop, is a three and one half story building constructed in 1790. The structure served as a washhouse, machine house, herb and seed room, and woodshed and thus it exemplified the Shaker principle of maximum utility."
In “On a Shaker Theme,” Sheeler overlaid two images, one slightly smaller and in reverse, of the portion of the laundry and machine shop. He also radically simplified the details of the building so that windows and doors are reduced to rectangles. Sheeler’s method of overlapping images resulted in a complicated scaffolding of diagonals and verticals. “On a Shaker Theme” celebrates the refined geometric forms that underlie Shaker design, although its compositional intricacy eschews the Shaker virtues of purity and simplicity.
I took from the painting and the Quaker lifestyle simplicity and straight lines, so I used cubes and rectangular beads from my stash as the main necklace. The white are marble beads and the red and beige are wooden beads. The three blue ceramic beads, which represent the blue sky in the painting, are Kazuri beads.
The art beads I used are lampwork glass beads from two artists and the cross pendant. The cross is from Inviciti. The red glass is from Julie Miller Glass. The two beige beads are from Pumpkin Hill Beads.
Take a look at the Pinterest board for more people's pieces inspired by the painting.

 

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